3D Printing News and Innovation

Introducing Premium Silver 3D Printing to Shapeways

We have just raised the bar for Silver 3D printing at Shapeways with the introduction of Premium Silver.

Premium Silver is our 3D printed Sterling Silver taken to the next level with an incredibly smooth, glossy surface to give your designs a truly professional finish. We will be offering Premium Silver for a six week trial until Tuesday May the 14th, during which we will assess the pricing and design rules. If you love this new finish as much as we already do, we will keep it as a permanent material option on Shapeways.

It is really important to note that we get this amazing finish on the Premium Silver with manual polishing that may result in very fine details being polished away. If your design has sharp corners these will be polished to a smoother, rounder edge. If your design has very fine engraving or embossing, these details may be polished out. As we progress through the trial we will have a better idea exactly what level of detail will succeed and we will update the design rules and guidelines accordingly.

As with other precious metals, the polished surface of silver is soft, so scrapes and scratches are to be expected as a normal part of wear. To minimize damage and ensure your product lasts a lifetime, we recommend storing your jewelry or other Silver products in a soft cloth pouch and away from other products. Avoid exposing the product to household chemicals during cleaning as they can be damaging to the finish. Silver tarnishes with time, use a silver polishing kit to maintain a glossy surface.

Pricing

To cover the cost of the manual polishing required to achieve the Premium Silver finish we are launching the trial with a tiered pricing structure for both the handling fee and the material price per cm3.

We will look at this pricing structure during the period of the trial and may opt to change them based on the model types and feedback we receive.

Design Rules

The design rules for Premium Sliver for the trial period are basically the same as our existing design rules though we recommend taking a close look at any fine details that may be removed during the finishing process.

3D printed Premium Silver will be on offer for a six week trial until Tuesday May the 14th at which point we may make changes to the pricing and design rules or we may discontinue if there is not sufficient demand. We are really excited about this new material option at Shapeways and think it will lift your 3D printed products to a whole new level.

Looks really nice. I would no doubt order something for myself in the new silver but for my business of re-selling, where I have to get the item shipped to me, pay import taxes, then ship back out, the price will not be very good for business…

And just to verify that I did some price comparisons: On a small pendant the price went up from $45 to $59… not too bad, but then another model – two thick rings – went from $218 to $686!! Wow. So I’m paying $468 for some extra polishing….

Well, Duann, I get a lot of my work from another site that caters to custom jewellery. I make it and then ship it to the customer, sometimes with post-work done on it, but not always. I try to explain that they can buy the item from my store on Shapeways but it just goes right over some people’s heads… Occasionally I get the message across, though. It’s unfortunate that when a lot of people read “3D Printing” they imemdiately tune out and seem to think “No, I mean I want to buy some REAL jewellery”….

This is a good news, and would like to put your attention, if possible, on my post that I’ve placed just now on the Forum regarding a test in silver high glossy .
It will be nice to try out some tests in PREMIUM, however I agree with Glenn that in terms of business it will be expansive, but I will try some price comparisons.

This is great and I’m happy for the people who will be making use of it but I’m not terribly interested personally. It’s far too expensive. I’d much rather see wood, rubber, full color sandstone with better detail and a polishing option, ceramics with better detail, a gold plating option that doesn’t look like butt, and a come-down in material price/cost. I know that’s a tall order but that’s what I would love to see, as an artist anyway.

Hey Bobbie, we’re absolutely excited about the same materials you are Premium Silver is a step in the right direction for Jewelry, but the gold plated finish and an overall higher detail and smoother finish on most of our materials is something we still need to perfect.

Since you are already using the lost wax method to cast your silver, why not offer a cast brass version. The material cost would be much, much lower and designers can have a much more cost efficient material to make fashion jewelry (can also have it gold plated, silver plated, etc)

Newbee here! . . .we are looking for opportunities to make 3-D models from line drawings. We have a sterling silver ring business. We need 3-D plastic models for 30 new designs a year. Is there anyone who can do this . . .?

These look stunning. The amount of detail is incredible, I never would’ve thought they could look that good! This is some top notch stuff that I’m going to be looking in on very soon! I’m just blown away by this guys, great post!